Designer: Tsuchimochi Shinji | Publisher: Miyakodori Publishing | Date: 2023

Paper size: 28cm by 28cm | Enlargement | Currency: $ / £ / €

Price: $ 180.00£ 140.00€ 160.00

Description: Mokuhankan Note: Following in the footsteps of Shin-hanga designers of the early 1900s, the young publisher Takashi Kashiwagi has sought to reinvigorate the mokuhanga world with a new concept. Kashiwagi-san’s great-grandfather ran a teahouse on the Sumida River in Tokyo, where he also worked as a printer for Ukiyo-e and Shin-hanga prints about a century ago. That teahouse was named Miyakodori, and Kashiwagi-san wanted to invoke the memory of his great-grandfather as he embarks on his own printmaking venture 100 years later.

For these new Reiwa Shin-hanga prints, Kashiwagi-san is experimenting with new techniques, and is using an industrial laser engraver to cut the outlines on the wood, with the wider clearing being done by hand.

Notes from the designer: This print is the first of what will be a set: “Tokyo: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter”. We intend to bring out the seasonal sentiments that the Japanese printmaking techniques excel at.

The design represents the departure of a migratory bird (miyakodori). In homage to the name of the current era in Japan (Reiwa), I depicted the bird with hope as it takes flight even though it cannot see ahead due to the haze of rain and fog.

The pond is technically called ‘Ikutokuen Shinji Pond’, but picked up the designation ‘Sanshiro’ from the novel by Soseki Natsume. Soseki loved this place because of its tranquility, which is rare in central Tokyo, and because of the traces of the Edo period that remain. Such a landscape is a fundamental part of the Japanese culture.

Notes from the publisher: Ukiyo-e can be divided into form and function. Today, the form remains as a traditional craft, while the function of the ukiyo-e of the day, in which the artists depicted and preserved the culture of the neighborhood in Tokyo has disappeared. Therefore, the project of Reiwa shin-hanga by Miyakodori began focusing on the restoration of this functional aspect of the prints.

In addition, materials that have been handed down since the Edo period are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain, making it difficult to continue creating works of art. In order to find the best way to continue the function of Ukiyo-e, we are experimenting with new materials and techniques.

Sanshiro Pond in Spring is a work born from such trial and error. We hope you enjoy it.